Pulp gauge



Oct. 14, 1958 F. A. WAYANT ETAL 2,855,683

PULP GAUGE Filed Dec. 4. 1953 I INVENTORS I 5 FRED ,4. mom/v7 ROBERT W Ll/VDSA Y ATTORNEY United States Patent PULP GAUGE Fred A. Wayant and Robert W. Lindsay, Enka, N. C., assignors to American Enka Corporation, Enka, N. C., a corporation of Delaware Application December 4, 1953, Serial No. 396,100

1 Claim. (Cl. 33-143) This invention relates to gauges and more particularly to a gauge for guiding an operator to select repeatedly and reliably a group of fiat sheets from a large stack thereof with only minor variations in the number of sheets in different groups.

The cellulose pulp from Which rayon is made is usually delivered to the rayon manufacturer in the form of large sheets. Incident to the preparation alkali cellulose, these sheets are soaked in a caustic soda solution and, after soaking, excess caustic soda is squeezed out. A multicell soaking press is used to accomplish this operation and a book or package of sheets of cellulose is put in each cell of the press. An ordinary press has about thirty cells. In order to obtain alkali cellulose of uniform composition, it is very important that each of these cells of the soaking press be charged with about the same number of sheets of cellulose pulp whereby all sheets will be equally and uniformly treated by the caustic soda.

Heretofore the maintenance of uniform load in charging the cells of a soaking press has been accomplished by weighing each package or book of sheets of pulp before putting it in the press cell. Since a press normally has about 30 cells and each cell will accommodate about pounds of pulp sheets, one can see that there is considerable labor involved in weighing the books with which a press is charged.

It is an object of the present invention greatly to facilitate the charging of soaking presses and indeed to provide an implement of wide applicability in the selection of a predetermined number of sheets of any sort of material from a large stack of such sheets.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof in conjunction with the annexed drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a bottom plan view of the gauge of the present invention as it is worn on the left hand of a user;

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the gauge showing the holding strap;

Figure 3 is an end view of the gauge; and

Figure 4 is a view in section taken on the line 44 of Figure 3.

Referring in greater detail to the drawings, the implement shown is comprised of a handle 10, contoured for use on the left hand, an adjustable leather strap 11 for holding the handle firmly on the hand and a blade 12 more or less centrally located on the underside of the handle. The handle 10 is made of a grip portion 13 and a base portion 14 suitably bonded together. The base portion 14 is of smooth, fiat metal adapted to contact the top surface of a sheet of pulp without abrading it. The blade 12 is held in position parallel to the fiat or planar surface 14 by an L-shaped bracket 15 having a shank which lies between the grip portion 13 and the base portion 14 of the handle 10. The blade 12 has a threaded stud 16 on it which slides in a slot in the other shank of the bracket 15. A nut 17 engages .the threaded stud 16 and serves to lock the blade or knife edge 12 in a desired position of adjustment.

The pulp gauge illustrated in the drawing is used by placing it in the Figure 1 position on the operators left hand with the knife edge 12 overlying the palm and pointing toward the fingers. The operator then faces a stack of pulp sheets and the part of the base portion 14 of the handle which is nearest the operators thumb is placed flat on the top of the stack with the knife edge 12 extended over the front of the stack. At this stage of the operation, the knife edge 12 is not in contact with the pulp sheets but it is accurately gauging the distance between the top of the stack and the last sheet to be selected for a particular package. With a wrist movement, the operator rotates the pulp gauge in a clockwis direction causing the knife edge 12 to be thrust into the stack of pulp sheets at the appropriate place. The operator then lifts the pulp gauge slightly and raises the package which he has cut out from the stack. The thumb of the left hand is pressed under the sheets and the package is withdrawn from the stack and placed in the compartment of the soaking press. This may be re peated as many times as is necessary to load a press.

The planar bottom surface of the handle and the planar upper surface of the blade together constitute gauge means by the use of which the thickness of material to be removed from the stack is determined. Should presses having compartments of different capacity be used, the spacial relation between the underside of the handle and the knife blade is appropriately'adjusted to cut out the right number of sheets.

Attention is directed to the contour of the handle and, in particular, to the fact that the knife underlies the palm of the hand in such a way that the normal contours of the palm are conveniently accommodated.

What is claimed is:

A gauge for selecting a predetermined book of sheets from stacked sheet material comprising an elongated handle adapted to extend transversely of the hand of the gauge operator, said handle having a planar bottom surface constituting a first gauging means and an upper grip surface contoured to fit the palm of said hand, adjustable strap means attached to the ends of said handle and adapted to extend longitudinally thereof over the back portion of said hand to hold said grip surface against the palm of said hand with the planar bottom surface exposed, a supporting bracket depending from a central portion of the planar bottom surface of said handle and a blade having a planar upper surface constituting a sec ond gauging means adjustably mounted on said supporting bracket in a manner to extend in the direction of the fingers of the gauge operator with the upper surface thereof disposed in a plane parallel to said planar bottom surface.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 57,283 Brown Aug. 21, 1866 196,976 Hill Nov. 13, 1877 562,027 Reaser June 16, 1896 1,217,905 Boice Mar. 6, 1917 2,278,610 Brownson et al. Apr. 7, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS 67,876 Norway May 30, 1944 

